Nanotechnology General News

Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Forget remote-controlled curtains. A new development by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, could lead to curtains and other materials that move in response to light, no batteries needed.

Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have pioneered a new technique for forming a two-dimensional, single-atom sheet of two different materials with a seamless boundary.

A new study shows that metamaterials can be designed to do "photonic calculus" as a light wave goes through them. A light wave, when described in terms of space and time, has a profile that can be thought of as a curve on a Cartesian plane. This theoretical material can perform a specific mathematical operation on that wave's profile, such as finding its derivative, as the light wave passes through the material.

Researchers work to create a chip that can sort circulating tumor cells (CTS), which break off tumors into the bloodstream and are responsible for metastasis, from other types of cells found in the blood. Detection of CTS can play an important role in early diagnosis, characterization of cancer subtypes, and treatment monitoring.

A new step is being taken in the development of ultra-stable sensors of small forces. EPFL researchers have found a way to eradicate external perturbations from interfering with their state-of-the art optomechanical measurement systems.

For the first time, a comprehensive set of tools is available for exploring correlations among the morphological, structural, electronic, and chemical properties of catalytic materials under working conditions.

Light-gathering macromolecules in plant cells transfer energy by taking advantage of molecular vibrations whose physical descriptions have no equivalents in classical physics, according to the first unambiguous theoretical evidence of quantum effects in photosynthesis.

Researchers have produced the world's fastest thin-film organic transistors, proving that this experimental technology could achieve the performance needed for high-resolution television screens and similar electronic devices. For years engineers have been trying to use inexpensive, carbon-rich molecules and plastics to create organic semiconductors that can approximate the performance of costlier technologies based on silicon.

Researchers are developing electronic components that are thinner and more flexible than before. They can even be wrapped around a single hair without damaging the electronics. This opens up new possibilities for ultra-thin, transparent sensors that are literally easy on the eye.

Can molecules or molecular assemblies interact physically with the sound vibrations of music? Japanese researchers have now revealed their physical interaction. When classical music was playing, a designed supramolecular nanofiber in a solution dynamically aligned in harmony with the sound of music.

Neuroblastoma, the third most common pediatric cancer, causes nerve cells to turn into tumors. The prototype vaccine uses a unique combination of nanotechnology and immunology to 'raise an army' of tumor-hunting immune cells, equip them to attack neuroblastoma, and leave them ready to reactivate if the cancer returns.

Enabling fast and effective design of new transistors for high performance electronics with greatly reduced power consumption. This is the ambitious objective that a unique multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from five European countries will pursue in the next three years in the framework of the EC funded project III-V-MOS 'Technology CAD for III-V Semiconductor-based MOSFETs'.

The method depends on a collective distribution of funding by the scientific community, requires only a fraction of the costs associated with the traditional peer review of grant proposals and, according to the authors, may yield comparable or even better results.